Seattle Park District Board - Special Meeting - Public Hearing 9/7/22

Everybody, thank you so much for coming out tonight to the Northgate Community Center.

It is September 7th, and it is, I think, about 610 or 612 p.m.

So I'll call this meeting to order.

I'm Andrew Lewis, the president of the Metropolitan Park District Board, and will the clerk please call the roll?

I don't know if I have a recorder.

Councilmember Herbold?

Here.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Chair Lewis, President Lewis.

Present.

We have five present.

Thank you.

And I do expect additional board members to join this evening.

But since we have a quorum, we will start taking public comment at this time.

I do want to give a brief overview that will be familiar to folks who have been following the process of the Metropolitan Park District Board, just on some of the details and timeline, as well as an update if members of the public are not privy to some of the additions that Mayor Harrell, in his announcement on Tuesday, have proposed to be part of the Park District Board.

So I'm just going to start by briefly running through the history that's brought us to this point.

As folks who follow this closely know, in August of 2014, the City of Seattle voted to create a Metropolitan Park District.

This is to replace the historic practice of supplementing the parks department with annual voter approved levies.

The park district is a ongoing sister government body to the city of Seattle, whereby the governing authority of it is the city council sitting in our dual role as members of the parks board, which is why we're gaveling in today as board members instead of council members.

And the park district has a broad mandate to invest in the operations and capital investments of parks with an ongoing property tax support base.

And the City of Seattle has decided to implement those investments in six-year investment cycles.

That first cycle ran from 2014 until 2020. We took a brief break from creating the second cycle due to the interruption of the COVID pandemic.

We are now creating the second six-year investment cycle And that is what we are here to discuss priorities for this evening with all of you.

The district currently funds about 20% of Seattle Parks and Recreation.

It has the capacity to go up to approximately a third of the total budget of parks.

In this cycle, given the property taxing limit that was approved by the voters in 2014, it doesn't have to go all the way up to that limit.

But again, the potential areas of investment that are included in there can essentially support any park purpose that folks would want to advocate for today.

The 2022 adopted district budget was about $56 million.

To put that in perspective, the proposal from Mayor Harrell would put that limit to approximately 100, or the budget for 2023 to about $116 million or somewhere in that range.

So in terms of the impact to The median property taxpayer, it would go from an average of about $154 under the current levied amount for the Metropolitan Park District to a little bit over $300 if the mayor's spending plan was approved without alteration one way or the other.

It could go slightly higher, it could go down.

So I do want to go over some of the changes that the mayor has approved or has proposed rather and that the council is now considering in our capacity is the park district board.

And.

Those increases to give the top line would be about $2.6 million to add a far more robust park ranger program.

The City of Seattle currently has two park rangers for our park system.

The Mayor's proposal would increase that to 28 total, so an add of 26 park rangers at a cost of $2.6 million.

Another ad that's been requested is the Green Seattle Partnership, which would increase tree plantings in parks at about $970,000 a year, which is a new ad beyond what had been proposed prior by the Board of Parks and Rec Commissioners.

$100,000 in additional activations for downtown parks.

$805,000 to keep all of the comfort stations, restrooms, bathrooms in our parks open year-round where some of them are only open on a seasonal basis currently and are not always cleaned at the frequency that members of the public would like to see.

This would increase the frequency of cleaning and keep all of the bathrooms, all 129 bathrooms in Seattle Parks open year round instead of closing them on a seasonal basis.

And that's $805,000.

And then it would enable continued funding of the Clean City Initiative, which is a COVID era initiative on the part of the city to increase the tempo of cleaning in public spaces that have experienced a disproportionate amount of trash accumulation or vandalism, graffiti.

And it would continue that initiative, which has been funded with one-time federal pass-through dollars with city money to the price of about $5.3 million a year.

Mayor Harrell's proposal would increase the Youth Opportunity Fund by about $800,000.

So those are the updates beyond the discussion that we've been having for the past several months.

Programming priorities, and just to highlight a few, expanding the Rec in the Streets program, and expanding the city's Conservation Corps, which was covered recently by Dan Beekman in the Seattle Times, which helps employ folks who are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and having careers in the parks and getting involved in remediating, fixing, and having a career in the parks.

So there's a lot of things that I'm sure are going to be on folks' minds tonight and we're mostly here to listen to the priorities that members of the community have as we continue to deliberate.

We're anticipated to make our final decision as a board of Parks and Rec, Metropolitan Park Board rather, later this month on the final package of what the rate for the Metropolitan Park District will be and what the different priorities for investment will be.

And the rest of this hearing is going to be conducted mostly like a large public comment session for folks who are familiar with the Seattle City Council's process.

So we'll give everyone a minute and a half to speak.

Folks have signed up.

I will call people's names.

I'll call several names at a time.

In order to keep things moving, we do have a number of folks who are present.

It's possible that board members may need to leave at a given point during the hearing this evening.

It is my intent to personally hear from everybody who is here.

If that's the case, we will gavel out as a formal meeting of the Metropolitan Park District and then gavel back in as a town hall at some point if that's necessary and we fall below quorum.

But I'm going to stay here until everyone has signed up, has said their piece on the park district renewal.

If folks have not signed up yet, there are still sign-in sheets over here by the door.

People can sign up for their minute and a half, and I will duly call the name when they come up.

So with those instructions, the clerk will keep time.

And the time is a minute and 30 seconds.

I'm going to call the first five names.

I apologize in advance if there's a name and I mispronounce it.

Please feel free to connect.

I absolutely want you to correct me if I'm wrong on the pronunciation of the name.

And I apologize in advance if that happens.

But I'm going to call up at least three names at a time and folks can queue here in the center at this microphone.

Speak into the microphone, introduce yourself and state your priorities for the Metropolitan Park District.

And again, you know, we're here tonight because we want to hear from you.

And I appreciate everybody here turning out tonight at this great example of what our Seattle Parks and Recreation can be in this great community center.

And with that, why don't we go ahead and call up the first couple of folks.

So we're going to.

Yes.

One point of order.

What district are we in?

Yeah, here in the great District 5. Thank you.

Represented by Council President Deborah Juarez.

Yes.

And you know, I also want to acknowledge this is probably this is the by far the biggest public meeting we have had off campus since before COVID.

And we just sort of accidentally fell into that.

So let's give a round of applause for that.

I do also want to recognize that Board Member Nelson has joined the meeting, so welcome Board Member Nelson.

And with that, let's call the first three names.

Tim Mozer, followed by Anna Maya, followed by Dayana Trujillo.

Good evening.

My name is Tim Mozart, a long-term resident of Lake City, supporter of funding for the Park District.

Yeah, I don't think we can hear you, Tim.

There's not a way to turn it on.

It's for the Seattle Channel.

Oh, OK, yes, yes.

So we'll hear you.

That's for the Internet.

Sorry.

Yeah.

OK, so Tim, we'll restart your time, obviously.

So the microphone is for this is being a recorded public meeting for the Seattle Channel.

The microphone is for the Seattle Channel to pick up that recording so that, you know, folks who watch TV later can hear what people say.

But that microphone does not amplify within the room, apparently.

That's that's what The clerks just said.

Yes, right here.

We can try to accommodate, yeah.

Yeah, try that Tim and let's see what yeah, yeah word-winning sales channel saying no All right So I do apologize in advance, but it doesn't sound like we'll be able to amplify people beyond your natural ability to amplify, and that is an oversight that I apologize for.

I was not aware that would be the case.

So how about this?

Can people please try to remain quiet for the speaker and can speakers to the best of their ability try to project.

But I apologize for that inconvenience that people will be able to hear on the Seattle Channel later I guess.

No, so the Seattle channel has this microphone so that the cameras can pick up the audio.

But those microphones are not plugged.

I don't know what the point of this is, frankly, necessarily.

This is to show that.

Oh, that's to show that.

Otherwise, you'd see no public comment timer or anything else.

Oh, I see.

OK, sorry.

My apologies.

All right, I am not an IT person.

I'm more of a classics major, I guess.

Anyway, so unfortunately, we're just going to have to project as best we can.

And if there's a particular salient point that someone raises that you want to follow later, you can do so on the award-winning Seattle Channel.

So Tim, with that, I apologize for the delay.

Yes, and if board members can maybe confirm if if you know if you can hear as well But I would imagine from this distance we can but go ahead My name is Tim Mozart long-term resident of Lake City and a loyal supporter of the park district funding and the 33 cent solution I'm here tonight to talk about the mayor's table on the community centers a couple issues there and On the first column of the table, we talk about the four major buildings being renovated.

I know Council Member Strauss had an issue with that.

I also have an issue with it because at least two of the four have officially been identified by a consultant study that was required by the city for community centers back in 2016 where they said based on engineering and architectural studies, Both Green Lake and Lake City need to be replaced, and I do believe that the other two facilities probably are very close to being on the replacement thing rather than the renovation, so something to consider.

On debt service financing, the mayor is recommending $130 million.

That's $20 million more than the commissioner's recommendation.

And that was also using $25 million worth of property tax.

If you take a look at what the current rate is for municipal bonds, the $130 million would cost $13.4 million.

So you might want to go back and take a look at the numbers.

So with that, thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker will be Anna Maya followed by Dayana Trujillo followed by Shirley Long City Council, I am Anna Moya here on behalf of Lake City Collective and Little Brook neighborhood Little Brook Park is the only green space in our community therefore it is the heart of our community and When I first became a part of this community 26 years ago, Little Brook Park was filled with children from all over the neighborhood.

They would play all day and occasionally have movie nights.

But now this has become a struggle due to pet waste and contamination.

We are very grateful to Lake City Collective for cleaning the park and making it useful again.

LCC has invited events and engaged the community, bringing more of us together.

It is now where kids can go to play, do art, learn, be creative, get involved with community events, express themselves, and show their talents.

while parents are informed and engaged of changes in our community.

Due to the success of outcomes for events, we have had to expand, therefore has led to the street closure.

We need Little Brook Park and we need it fully funded in this budget for our children and families now and for generations to come.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Diana.

I'm 14 years old and I live in the Lake City community.

When I was younger, there were families enjoying Little Bird Park.

It was clean and it was safe for kids.

Now it's empty, dirty because of dog poop.

And now no one wants to go.

I, as a teenager of this community, Want an open space where I can have fun without needing to worry about things like dog poop.

And just have fun and enjoy my community park.

Thank you.

So then on deck will be Peggy Hernandez and Anya Guerrero.

Apologize for almost surely mispronouncing your name.

Please, go ahead.

Hi, I'm Shirley Long, and I live in the Little Brook neighborhood inside Lake City.

I'm here to ask you to please fully fund Little Brook Park redevelopment through the Equity Grant Fund.

This is one of the most well-used little parks in the whole city by people from all walks of life, including families and children of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, especially compared to other parts of the city.

It's located inside one of the densest neighborhoods in North Seattle.

with a large number of people of color, immigrants, refugees, low-income households, disabled folks, and renters.

But Little Brook Park and neighborhood has been neglected by the city for far too long.

When I make the trek out to parks in wider and wealthier neighborhoods, I regularly see million-dollar renovations planned for already updated parks there, but have been told that for some reason, there's no money for us.

New home zones surround our neighborhood, but explicitly leave us out.

The residents of Little Brook Park and neighborhood need and deserve a better place, better green space.

Thank you.

And then on deck, Cesar Garcia and Michael Bruner.

Good evening, council members.

I'm Peggy Hernandez with Lake City Collective, a minority-led nonprofit organization, and I'm here in support of a fully funded little group park.

I could talk about the diversity of our neighborhood, or how dense it is, or how many neighbors have lived here for 15 or 20 years, but I'm here to share that our park is empty.

Families can't enjoy the only green space our community has.

The park is full of dog poop and urine smell.

All these waste go to Little Brook Creek and then to Lake Washington.

The neighbors have participated in a visioning process to redesign our park and bring social, racial, and environmental justice to all of us.

Please, call your phone our Little Brook Park.

Our families don't have the capacity to do phone tracing.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Anya Guerrilco, and I'm here to support fully funding Little Brook Park.

I have been an environmental justice intern at Lake City Collective for over two years, and I first met the group as an AmeriCorps at Little Brook Park in the summer of 2020, where I saw the ways in which families were not able to use their park during a pandemic because of safety and public health issues in the park.

The current design of the park does not have enough amenities for the community, and a large open green space has resulted in people using the park as a dog park, which has led to unsafe amounts of feces and urine in areas where children play.

People want to see more formal play areas, water structures, nature paths, and more.

These are amenities that other more affluent white neighborhoods in Seattle have in their parks.

The Little Brook neighborhood deserves to have these same amenities so people can live in a healthy, thriving neighborhood.

This park has the potential to serve around 60,000 people in the neighborhood.

It is a small but very down-to-earth majority community, and Little Brook Park is the only accessible green space in the area.

Funding the redesign of Little Brook Park that Lake City Collective has created through a community-led design process would be an effective, direct way for the city to meaningfully make social, racial, and environmental justice progress in North Seattle.

The community has put in the work into organizing and identifying what they need to thrive.

Please fully fund the redesign of Little Brook Park.

Thank you.

And then on deck, we'll have Andrew Echols and Kristen Smith.

Please, go ahead.

Good afternoon.

Where I come from, indigenous people stood up and said, for everybody, everything.

For us, nothing.

And they started a new movement to fight for the rights.

Despite us being in a different context, they fight for the fundamental rights of underprivileged families to continue.

such as the right to health and recreation.

I invite every one of you to visit our center and take a tour of Little Roof, and especially our park, to see our reality.

A special invitation to our District 5 Council Member, Deborah Weiss.

It's just 10 minutes from here.

Come and smell the stench of dog feces and urine in a hot summer day, and tell me if you will let your kids or your loved ones to play here.

Last year, Lakeshield Collective led a community vision process that parks staff called unprecedented in the city by the diverse group of healthy communities that participated here.

The hearing victim was created to right many wrongs that are still prevalent in North Seattle for immigrant communities, and Little Group Farm is the greatest wrong of them all.

You have the power to change that.

Please fully fund Little Group Farm with the HBD grant fund.

For everybody, everything.

For us, something.

Thank you.

And then on deck, Hannah Lindell Smith and Andrea Ornelas.

Ornelas?

Go ahead, please.

Good evening.

I'm Michael Brunner.

I am the treasurer of the MOCA organization, the Morgan Community Association in West Seattle.

And I'm here tonight to advocate completion of the Morgan Junction Park Annex.

The Morgan Junction Park was built in 2009. In 2014, the Morgan Park Annex, which is north of the existing park, was purchased as a land bank site.

In 2016, the existing building on that site was demolished and a fence was put around the existing site.

It has been incomplete since that time.

No additional progress has been made on that part.

It has become a safety issue and an unsightly area for our neighborhood.

Recently, kids have been using it as a skate park, so I don't think that's particularly safe.

We recommend that the park be considered one of the pre-commitment sites to be completed with the existing recommended funding.

I would like to point out that the park site is used for our annual festival each year as our center stage.

And in conclusion, we recommend that the park annex be completed, that all the pre-commitment sites be funded fully, and that the park be completed on a timely map.

Thank you.

Hi there.

My name is Andrew Eccles.

We're 350 Seattle.

Thank you.

We're 350 Seattle.

and a rank and file Seattle Education Association member.

I'm here tonight to represent with folks here the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign, which for folks, as many of you are familiar, our vision is to upgrade Seattle community centers with heat pumps so they can move from gas heat to all electric and also add cooling capacity in addition to heating, especially for having cooling shelters.

during heat events, to upgrade the HVAC so that they can be sheltered during smoke events and safer for COVID, and to add microgrid solar so they can have backup power during power outages, during heat events, earthquakes, or winter storms.

We want to do all of this with a project labor agreement to create good green union jobs and direct local hire, so we have pathways into the building trades for local residents at sites.

And really crucially, we want communities most impacted by pollution and disinvestment to be prioritized for receiving these upgrades.

We're really thrilled to see the mayor's proposal included a lot of our vision.

We think that's due to a lot of really strong organizing work.

And we want to see as much funding as possible go for these really critical upgrades for investing in our communities and fighting the climate crisis.

We also, a lot of folks here, collected these thousand petition signatures to this effect, which we wanted to turn in to you all today.

Thank you.

So then on deck, Sarah Jane Siegfried and David Ward.

Can you also call the number who's about to speak?

Yes, and the person about to speak is Kristen Smith.

Great, thank you.

There you go.

Hi, my name is Kristen Smith.

I'm an educator.

I live in southwest Seattle, which is also where I work, in the West Seattle and White Center communities.

And I've also been volunteering with the Healthy for Heat and Smoke campaign.

I became involved in the campaign because during last summer's heat wave, I spoke to a lot of my students and their families.

A lot of my students live in marginalized communities, most impacted by pollution.

During that time, their families, many of them didn't have a place to go.

And in fact, our community had to scramble and use private spaces during that time to even have enough places pooling in White Center because it was a real crisis.

So when I found out about this campaign, I knew I wanted to get involved.

Since I've been volunteering, I actually collected quite a few of those canvas cards in the West Gatling community and within my own school community.

And what I've been struck by is that I have not spoken to a single person in my community who does not think that this is a good idea.

In fact, so many people have said, wow, I'm so glad there are people who are trying to do something about this.

Beyond that, I'm also representing a group of students at my school who are part of an action alliance.

I told them I was going to come here today and give this public comment because I really believe that for the futures of our young people, we need to start taking steps like this.

I believe in everything that this campaign is trying to do, that that is the right thing to do for our youth.

Thank you.

Hannah Lindell-Smith?

Yes.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Yes.

Hello, council members.

My name is Hannah Lindell-Smith.

I'm a constituent of District 1, a junior at Summit Atlas High School, and a community organizer here in support of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign demands.

One night in August 2020, I woke up to smoke blowing in.

We closed the windows and stuffed towels under doors as the wind changed and smoke from eastern Washington wildfires covered over the city.

Over the next 10 days, community, political, and mutual aid groups I work with organized around the clock to provide safety supplies as the sun turned red.

Extreme weather events like this are becoming more and more common.

I was privileged enough to have a safe place to stay inside and wait it out, but this is not the reality for many people, and the effects were very dangerous, especially in BIPOC and low-income communities already affected by environmental racism.

The climate crisis is here, and community is how we survive it.

Upgrading Seattle's community centers with the upcoming parks levy is a step towards our Green New Deal commitments, and the city where resilience is a priority.

Thank you.

Andrea?

Excellent, thank you.

Hi.

I'm Andrea Ramirez.

I'm representing Larvis Local 242. my family, and children, and I've got a story to tell.

Somewhere a few years ago, I worked outside in the construction field.

I remember looking up at the sky.

I could see the fog and smoke coming from the east, and I took a sigh.

In that sigh, there were many thoughts.

I wondered how my children were making it through the day at school.

Are they outside?

Could they breathe during resets?

Is the school ventilated?

Also in that sigh, I wondered how those without homes would survive inhaling the smoke from the forest fires.

How those with homes without AC would endure the heat.

I wondered if I should wear a mask while working outside.

As a state of emergency across all Washington counties due to wildfires was declared, I wondered when the smoke would clear out and when we would feel safe to breathe again.

But it would be nice to alleviate some of that.

What if there was a place the community could use during a climate crisis?

A resilience hub that could save lives when a car goes out during a snowstorm.

A cooling hub when it was unbearably hot during a heat wave.

With the increased budget for Seattle parks and community can build stronger neighborhoods and benefit from community workforce agreements.

These agreements provide opportunities for the community to make a livable wage, acquire necessary innovations for their own homes and families as well.

And that's why I support the full demand of the Heals the Through Smoke campaign.

Thank you.

So then after Sarah Jane we'll have David Ward followed by Jacob Scheer and Clara Cantor.

Go ahead, please.

Hi, I'm Sarah Jane Siegfried.

I represent the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance.

And we've been advocating for a new community center for Lake City for quite a long time.

Most people don't realize that Lake City is a majority BIPOC community, even though we're in the North End.

People of color are dominant in Lake City.

And we have a large community of East African immigrants, obviously a large community of Hispanic folks as well.

Many have been here for decades.

We have a large amount of low-income senior and family housing in Lake City, but no senior center and no functional community center at all.

We have several hundred more units of low-income housing under construction.

The Valley Village building is over 250 units.

The Mennonite Church is permitting a number, several hundred units.

Chief Seattle Club is building up by Little Brook.

The community center that we have, so-called, was built in 1947, but it has no gym, no pool.

Basically, it's an event room with a kitchen.

And it cannot be renovated.

The mayor's budget states that it would be renovated.

He has $10 million for two innovations and 12 other sites, which is ridiculous.

$30 million is the total cost of our one building.

Right now, we think $11 million in the kitty.

We got money from the state as well.

The mayor, last, previous mayor promised five million, then it never appeared in the budget, and we feel it's owed to us.

And our state legislators are very supportive of this as well.

We're going to build housing above.

It's innovative.

We're excited.

Help us build it.

Hello, I'm David.

You guys ready?

Please, go ahead.

Sorry.

Go ahead.

My name is David Ward.

I'm a 15-year member of the Lifelong Recreation Advisory Council, but I'm speaking only for myself.

I urge the NPD board to maintain all of the current morning hours in the community centers, because a number of them are getting cut as part of Parks' proposed expanded evening hours.

They will eliminate nearly half of Parks' Lifelong Recreation senior older adult programs and destroy the program.

It will also eliminate much city provided daycare programs, replacing it with private homeschool programs.

Lifelong represents the people who are 50 plus, who are 30% of Seattle's population.

It's a popular program with attendance of 100,000 in 1999, just prior to COVID.

And it increased 30% from 2015 and had 247 weekly community center programs.

It's won awards for both its Dementia-Friendly Program and its LGBTQ Program, Rainbow Recreation.

Lifelong Recreation and Senior Program is a stated priority for the city, and seniors are also part of the city's race and social justice initiatives.

Park's recent recreation director, Justin Cutler, said the reduction in morning hours was due to public requests for more night and weekend hours.

But no one asked for fewer morning hours.

That was strictly a park's decision.

Also, no one asked for private groups to replace city-provided services.

That was also strictly a park's decision.

I asked city council to protect lifelong recreation and not replace it with other city provided services with private groups.

Again, I asked the NPD board to stop the reduction in morning hours.

Thank you.

And Jacob Scheer is next, but OK, excellent.

And then Clara Cantor is on deck, and Peter Condit, and then Penny O'Grady.

Please.

Thank you.

Hi, my name's Jacob Scheer.

I'm an organizer in Real Change's advocacy department, as well as with the House Our Neighbors Initiative 135 for social housing here in Seattle.

As an organization that works directly with unhoused and low-income Seattleites, Real Change knows that the impact of a climate emergency, including heat and smoke, impacts folks like Real Change vendors disproportionately.

When a heatwave or smoke hits Seattle, we must remember that every day and night in this very wealthy city, thousands of our neighbors live and sleep outdoors with no relief from the extreme conditions that have become increasingly common to define our summers and our winters.

And our neighbors living outdoors need permanent housing that meets their needs, and we are thrilled that Seattle will soon have an opportunity to vote on bringing permanently affordable, permanently public housing this February when Initiative 135 is on the ballot.

As we work to establish housing as a human right here in Seattle, we urgently need an expansion and comprehensive coverage of climate-resilient cooling centers throughout Seattle, and this should be a cornerstone of any parks levy.

City Council must make climate and community resilience a central component of the park's living to keep people safe, healthy, and alive.

Real change vendors and all people deserve relief from heat and smoke and the right to be cool and comfortable.

Thank you.

Is Clara Cantor here?

Clara Cantor?

OK.

We will move on to Peter Condit.

Is Peter Condit here?

Excellent.

And then after Peter Condit, Penny O'Grady.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Peter Condit.

I'm a scientist.

I use Seattle parks almost every day.

And I'm a survivor of police assault.

I'm here to speak against the mayor's proposal to use $3.6 million to fund 26 additional park rangers.

These rangers are wannabe cops who support violent sweeps, ban certain people as trespassers, and generally assist in the project of hiding our city's increasing wealth inequality.

As Seattle leaders transition towards public safety that does not involve the violence of policing and criminalization, these park cops would be a big step backwards.

Please do not allow such a drastic increase in park ranger staffing.

Instead, the money could more effectively provide for the people of Seattle by investing in the demands of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

Upgrading community centers into microgrids that can provide cool refuge during deadly heat waves would do far more for our community's health and safety than a ranger could.

Do not fund more cops.

Thank you for listening.

Penny O'Grady followed by Dakota Rash and Joshua Lennon.

Please.

Hi, I'm Penny O'Grady.

I'm here in support of Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

I want to speak strongly in support of everything that has been said around that.

And I also want to say that I also am concerned about the use of some of those funds in the parks levy for the park rangers.

I don't think we need more policing.

I don't think we want to go to the parks in order to be policed.

And that's really important.

And when it comes to statements like, I know you all didn't say it, people don't have a right to sleep on sidewalks.

People don't have a right to sleep in parks.

People shouldn't have a reason to sleep on sidewalks.

And people shouldn't have a reason to sleep in parks.

Take the money that would go to rangers who are going to be there to police and help with sweeps, which is not really the solution.

And yeah, you know, initiative 135, social housing, all of that stuff, that's what we need to fund people so that we are safe during climate change, during social upheavals of all types.

We want to have good foundational bedrock options and opportunities.

So Dakota, followed by Joshua Lennon, and then Peter Lennon.

Please.

Okay, let's do this.

Hello, my name is Dakota Rash, and tonight I'm appearing before you as a heat pump.

Heat pumps are awesome because they're innovative, they can both heat and cool, and they're energy efficient.

But they are even better when they appear with collaboration, when they're powered by solar panels and clean energy.

And that is something that I want to lift up about the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign to you all tonight.

It is collaboration.

You have heard and you will hear so many voices from so many people in support of this campaign from different backgrounds, from different life experiences, and from different organizations.

And that's amazing because what the climate crisis is going to do if we let it is tear us apart.

It is an issue amplifier and multiplier.

It takes every weakness we have and it is going to make it worse if we don't come together and fight it as a united front.

So please, we are all collaborating.

We are all working together to build something amazing for a community.

So many people have contributed so much effort into this.

They made this thing I'm wearing.

We are all collaborating, and we are going to keep collaborating.

So the question tonight only remains, are you all going to come on board?

Joshua Lennon.

I don't see Joshua Lennon.

Oh, sorry.

There you go.

Excellent.

Hi, my name is Josh Lennon.

I'm with 350 Seattle in the smoke campaign, and I am 16 years old.

I'm so happy that the council is considering our proposal for community centers.

It's paramount that these changes are made to keep our city, especially its most vulnerable residents, healthy as climate change takes its toll.

I'm also very pleased that Seattle's committed to transitioning city-owned buildings off fossil fuels by 2035, but In that year, I will turn 29. I do not think that we as a city and as a world can wait till my 30s to fulfill Seattle's promise to a Green New Deal.

I can't wait that long.

If even the buildings of our government, who should be setting an example, cannot use green energy, then how can we expect others to do so?

We are already experiencing climate change at home.

We know from experience that these problems are growing fast and that we are not making big enough differences right now to help.

I hope that the city approves our proposal and that we can make further changes sooner rather than later.

Thank you.

So Peter, Sorry?

Oh, OK, please.

Yes.

And then afterwards, Charlie Holman and Amanita Ekstor.

So please.

Good evening, everyone.

I just want to say kudos to everyone that has spoken about the 350 campaign.

I agree with what everyone has said.

You guys need to give yourselves a hand.

So I just wanted to say how strongly I support the 350 Healthy Smoke campaign.

I'm really concerned about the extreme weather and what it's doing to many of us in our communities.

I'm really concerned that the fact that a lot of us that live here in this region is not used to this kind of weather.

So it makes us sick.

It really does.

It makes us extremely sick.

You just want to hide out in your house when the heat wave hits.

And if you cannot afford an air conditioner, you're in trouble.

Fortunately, I can.

I can invest in an air conditioner.

But a lot of my community cannot.

So I'm talking about our elders.

I'm talking about the houseless.

And so you really need to get on board with this.

And so just really want to, I don't know how much I can reiterate that.

It's extremely important that you get on board with this.

And do the right thing.

Support this campaign.

Yeah.

Hi, everyone.

I'm here today to express my support for and urge you to upgrade our community centers to climate resilience hubs.

The climate crisis is here, and it's extremely evident when we hear from everyone in this room and with the wildfire smoke and heat waves that we've been experiencing the last couple summers that feel constant, and they will continue to be constant.

This is honestly a terrifying time to be alive, but it's also an opportunity for us to transform the city for the better if the city is ready to step up.

So the question is, will Seattle's leaders rise to the moment and take every opportunity they have to address this crisis and what it means for its residents?

We need the city to walk its talk, both when it comes to climate resilience goals and equity goals.

So there is an opportunity here for you to put your words into action.

Our city needs to provide a place for people to go when staying home or being outside just isn't safe because of these extreme events.

This effort should prioritize the communities in Seattle that are already historically overburdened by pollution, heat island effect, and dealing with compounding consequences as heat and smoke increase in frequency each summer.

This should be a no-brainer.

By committing to upgrade Seattle's community centers to be climate resilience hubs, we can act this year to meet these immediate needs for clean air and cooling centers and to move some of our public buildings off of fossil fuels.

We're looking to you to make this happen.

I support the full demand of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

Thank you for letting me speak.

After Amanita on deck, we're going to have Miriam Hale and Belinda Chin.

Unless Amanita's not present.

Oh, sorry.

Please, come on up.

Hello.

My name is Amanita Eaton.

I am a volunteer with 350 Seattle.

I am 16 years old, and my pronouns are she, her, and they, them.

The climate crisis is here.

Between last year's heat dome and the current heat waves in California and Europe, the message is clear.

We must adapt, and we must stop making the crisis work.

This decade will be make-or-break for the climate crisis, unless decisions made now will reverberate...

for a very long time, into my lifetime and beyond.

Thus, creating safe and sustainably powered spaces for those affected will be crucial in ensuring Seattle's status as a climate leader for years to come.

Furthermore, it will also do a lot for the welfare of the youth, the people who will have to live with the climate crisis their whole lives.

If you build these community centres, everyone in my generation will thank you, as will every generation thereafter.

Thank you.

Mariam?

Yes.

Please, go ahead.

I'm Mariam.

I come before you in the guise of a solar panel.

Like the Lorax before me, I speak for the trees.

Like many Seattleites and the majority of Americans, I am very concerned by climate change, by its impacts on our society, by its impacts on all of us as individuals, and also by its impact on the planet as a whole.

There is an urgent need to transition immediately off of fossil fuels in every area of our from our civilization, and I think this parks levy is an opportunity to make progress towards a better and greener future.

The city has made a commitment to take all city buildings off of fossil fuels by 2035, and we need to start acting on that now and with a sense of urgency.

Upgrading the Seattle community centers with energy efficient heat pumps, solar microgrids, and HVAC systems would be a step forward in cutting emissions on the part of the city, and it would also be a huge step forward in helping our communities to safely navigate the upcoming extreme heat events that will only become more frequent as our trees burn and as the heat rises.

So I'm here to support all of the demands of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign on behalf of all of us and on behalf of all of my fellow solar panels, thank you.

So Belinda?

Yes.

So after Belinda, we'll have Nicole Grant and Grace Ho.

So they're on deck.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

I'm Belinda Chin.

I'm a Protech 17 steward representing community center staff at Seattle Parks and Recreation.

And this is what we're hearing.

This is what I'm hearing from staff.

Fully staff all Seattle Parks community centers and make sure that there are enough folks to cover extra shifts during heat waves and wildfire smoke.

All Seattle Parks community centers need to have heating and cooling as well as air filtration to keep workers and community members safe from climate change.

Our community centers need the solar panels, thank you.

And battery storage to make sure that we can keep the lights on, the cell phones plugged in for emergencies, The fresh food for community centers, for community meals fresh, and the medicines cool for the people that we serve, you know, for power outages.

Nobody gets left behind.

Make sure that the most impacted communities get the community center upgrades we desperately need.

And please work with the unions.

Workers building and upgrading the community centers and working in them need the workers' rights.

and benefits that come with union membership.

Thank you.

Nicole?

Hello, council members.

Nicole Grant, I issue her pronouns, and I'm the executive director at 350 Seattle.

I want to say that it's amazing here.

It is new and modern, and it is cool, and I wish it was like this at the Rainier Community Center.

I wish it was like this at the Garfield Community Center.

Or the South Park Community Center that's not even open.

We deserve this across the city at all 26 community centers.

We deserve to be able to be cool during a heat wave when it's too hot, and to have filtered air.

We deserve to have rooftop solar that can refrigerate our medicines and charge our cell phones during a power outage.

And I also have to say, my union, IVW 46, where I'm a journeyman electrician, they've endorsed Healthy Through Heat and Smoke, and on behalf of the eight Union electricians in King County.

We want to see these community centers get built, union, and run, union, to be fully staffed.

The last thing I want to say is that we have so many partners that have signed on to this campaign.

And it is such an honor to be endorsed by the Seattle Parks Foundation.

We really appreciate their leadership on tree canopy and the equity fund.

So let's do this.

And then after Grace, on call will be Aiden and Shia.

Please, go ahead.

Sorry.

Awesome.

Good evening.

My name is Grace Hope.

I'm a staff member and organizer with 350 Seattle, also a solar panel this evening.

Thanks for flying along all the way from Hopkins.

I'm here to share my support for the Healthy Through Beaten Smoke campaign.

It's so important that we spend this heart-fluttering money on real support and shelter for our communities.

so we can take care of each other when extreme climate events hit our region.

Through these past many months of campaigning, we've seen a tremendous amount of excitement and support for the demands of the Healthy for Heat and Snow campaign.

Because we know everywhere, people are really in touch with the seriousness of the climate crisis, and people are really eager to be part of community-based solutions.

I'm a single parent.

And I'm a scientist, and I think a lot about what it means to raise young people in this moment.

During last year's historic heat wave, which was a once-in-a-1,000-year event, made 150 times more likely by the climate crisis, I borrowed an air-conditioning unit from my neighbor, and my sister's whole family came to stay at my tiny house with my kids, with all the dogs, for about a week, just trying to cope.

We were lucky we had access to an air conditioning unit, but so many people could not make ends meet and couldn't find shelter during that crisis.

I just want to say, I know it's overwhelming to think about solutions to the climate crisis because it's so big.

I want to encourage us to know that now is a moment we can actually do something.

And the Green New Deal solutions for this Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign are just the beginning.

Thank you.

And then on deck we'll have Junie Lee and Robert Mataton.

All right, good evening.

My name's Aiden.

I'm 21 years old.

I'm here with 350 Seattle.

I grew up living and working around this area, and I remember how the sky looked in early September of 2020, almost exactly two years ago this time, actually.

Well, today we have clear skies, then we had wildfire smoke, making it look like dusk at 3 p.m., despite the sun still being far over the horizon.

It was dangerous even to be outside for too long.

The summer heat misstayed though, and without AC, my family and I have done our best to keep cool.

We stayed inside in shaded rooms, but I know that many of our neighbors did not and do not have places to go.

All of this is to say that we have a responsibility to do everything we can to act on climate and move off of fossil fuels.

The city of Seattle's government knows this.

We wouldn't be here if it didn't.

But what I don't know is the city's plan to meet these climate commitments.

Thankfully, the communities and groups that have organized the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign have clear ideas and demands that would help make some headway against the climate crisis in Seattle.

Climate resilience centers can give people a place to go when the weather is hostile and it looks like dusk outside and it's hard to breathe outside at 3 p.m.

in early September because of the smoke like it was two years ago.

This is just the beginning and there will be more work to do, but this is a great start and a way to buy some time while bigger plans to address the climate crisis are formed.

And time is of the essence here, so I'll conclude by saying that I fully support the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

Hi, my name is Shay Teely.

I just want to comment quickly about our community centers.

I recently heard someone make the very disturbing point that this summer will be the coolest that we will ever experience.

And while it completely stands to reason that this would be the case, thinking about our situation in those simple and honest terms should shock us all and should be a wake up call for our city.

Transitioning off of fossil fuels is absolutely crucial.

But even if we were to stop burning fossil fuels today, we would still need to find ways to deal with the negative effects of climate change that are already guaranteed at this point in time.

Upgrading Seattle's community centers with micro-grid solar and electric heat pumps to provide clean and cool air during extreme heat events, particularly when smoke from nearby wildfires begins saturating the city, really is a good place to start.

Such upgrades would create green jobs, jobs that people can feel good about performing, and make Seattle a leader in climate resiliency.

It is worth noting that these upgrades to the community center's HVAC systems would also be extremely useful during seismic events that involve lost power for Seattle residents, as we do live on a major fault line.

Upgrading our community centers for climate resiliency would also be in line with what I believe are and always have been Seattle's core values.

Seattle is going through a lot of changes right now.

But we need to ensure that we are an example for other cities around the country when it comes to dealing with the harsh realities of the climate crisis.

I support the full demands of the healthy through heat and smoke campaign.

Thank you.

Junie.

Yes.

Excellent.

Please.

Good evening everyone.

My name is Junie Lee.

I'm a health care worker and renter in West Seattle.

By a show of hands, who here does not have AC at home?

I'm speaking on behalf of many others who are at risk of being left behind.

The summer has left me exhausted.

Every day I would check the forecast, and if it's above 90 degrees, the rest of my day would devolve into a scramble to get out of my own home.

We've heard promises about moving city buildings off fossil fuels, deadlines, dollar amounts, but we have yet to experience any visceral benefit from any of these plans.

Although I'm here today with 350 Seattle, I'm here with my larger community as well, labor unions, race coalitions, housing justice folks, to offer an equitable plan forward, because when we move in solidarity, we win.

The climate crisis is here, and our own homes cannot keep us safe.

We need shelter now, so let's get started.

Let's not play whack-a-mole once climate emergencies become more frequent and it's too late.

I urge you to take this opportunity to keep your own promises and listen to the voices of the community you represent.

Thank you.

Yes, so after Robert, we'll have Marilyn Furlati, Susan Health, and Sue Hildreth are all on deck.

So go ahead, please.

Hi, my name is Robert Mattesall.

I live in Fremont, Seattle.

I'd like to say ditto to everything that everybody from 350.org has said.

Thank you in support of the Help You Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

And I'd like to just give you a few more personal comments that I've experienced based on this.

One, it was 116 degrees in Sacramento yesterday.

120 in several schools in LA.

The water levels in Kentucky and in Jackson, Mississippi have made some of the water systems completely unusable.

These are some of the quarter of a million people that are moving to Seattle in the next 10 years.

Many of the buildings that have been built are owned by REITs.

Basically the business model for REIT is to do as little as possible in maintenance and services and charge as much as possible so that the money can go out to investors who don't even know where these buildings are.

In my building, which is only five years old, there's no air conditioning.

If I walk down my hallway on a hot day, everybody has a fan trying to blow the air conditioning from the public spaces into the private.

You can't open the windows on a smoky day to get fresh air, and this is in the middle of a COVID, which is highly respiratory pandemic.

So I want to give you a personal idea of how important these cooling centers are to a variety of people.

I'm 65 years old.

I'm a cancer survivor.

I can't stay in my building on a hot day.

I have to go out either to a swimming pool or to a library or to a community center just to survive.

And so I want to support everything that's been said tonight to encourage you to do this and also to keep in mind that We are trying to get off fossil fuels, which is what is the major cause of all this in the first place.

Thank you very much.

My name is Marilyn Verlotte.

I'm a lifelong member of this community and a member of the Green Lake Advisory Council.

And I'm here to advocate for the building of the new rec center for the Green Lake community.

The center that we have now is 100 years old.

The pool is 65 years old.

They are at the end of their lives and we need to have replacement or refurbishment.

We're at the point where we're still trying to decide whether we should refurbish, but we really do need to rebuild because all the studies have shown that it is not really possible.

At any rate, We need at least $50 million.

I know that's a lot of money, but to get started on this project, we need the support of this community to be able to do that.

That center serves the part that is most heavily used in the state of Washington.

It serves a huge community of people who don't even live there.

And so we need to have a new facility.

We can fulfill some of the needs of the people who have spoken today when they don't have the things that they need.

And thank you.

Susan?

Hi, my name is Susan Helf.

I live in Crown Hill.

I'm one of the founders of St. Evans Pool and Green Lake Community Center.

An organization we founded some years ago when parks tried to privatize our buildings and we pushed back hard.

We got some money to fix up the buildings, but, you know, there, as Marilyn said, the community center is 100 years old and the pool is 54 years old.

They are falling apart.

There is no way that we can have air conditioning there.

We can't make it earthquake proof.

Those buildings desperately need to be replaced, not refurbished.

We've sent out an invitation to the city council, I hope you all got yours.

We're inviting every member of the council and other members of the city government to come out and tour our buildings and see just how messed up they are.

Repairs aren't going to cut it.

And I totally support what all these wonderful people have been saying about establishing community centers and pools as a place for people to get out of the bad weather, as cooling centers, as warming centers.

We can't do that now either in the buildings.

And no amount of repairing is going to make them suitable for that.

Marilyn has been our secretary on the Green Lake Advisory Council, excuse me, pressure and every other position for 40 years.

She's been working to get our buildings replaced.

I would like to see that happen when Maryland is still around.

And so we desperately need to have those buildings replaced.

They are the oldest and most heavily used in the city.

And Lake City needs replacement as well.

This was the original purpose of the parks levy, to replace community centers.

That's what we were sold on.

I don't see that happening.

Susan, your time has expired.

Thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Sue.

So after Sue, we'll have KL Shannon and then Donald Harris.

Go ahead.

Hello, my name is Sue Hillred.

I'm a 27-year homeowner in District 4. I support including and fully funding 350 Seattle's Healthy Through Heat and Smoke measures.

Please remove the mayor's funding for 28 park rangers.

Remove that money.

Move that money to accelerating the construction of the resilience hubs that are recommended by the city of Seattle.

I walked past every day a year-long homeless large encampment on Ravenna Boulevard and 15th Street and never felt threatened.

Stop the sweeps.

The way to deal with encampments is to tax the rich, build housing along the model offered by I-135, Provide better services for the housing insecure populations.

No more empty commitments to addressing climate or homelessness.

Act now, please.

So Donald Harris, followed by Dawit Ayanna.

Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Sorry.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Peter Lennon.

They're hence my confusion.

Yes, go ahead.

You can restart the time.

I'm sorry.

So at this point, we've heard say thank you for supporting our healthy through heat and smoke campaign.

It's really great to live in a city that actually is popular to support climate resiliency and sustainability programs.

And I really appreciate our progressive leadership.

that are often ignored.

And of course, my voice is not the voice that matters.

The voices that matter are the voices of our more vulnerable citizens in our most impacted communities.

So we have children, pregnant mothers.

cannot wait for another funding cycle.

So again, thank you for supporting this campaign.

I'm Peter Lynn from 350 Seattle.

Donald?

I'm Donald Harris.

It's really all about climate and the environment, isn't it?

I'm part of a group that's working to raise a million dollars a year for replanting of trees in our developed parks.

We are facing a crisis in our parks.

We're losing trees and they're not being replanted.

We're way behind and we'll never catch up without adequate funding.

We appreciate the additional funding for 100 more trees in our parks, totaling 600 annually, although the annual loss of trees is in excess of 700 trees a year.

Trees, These trees need to be established for the long term.

We need a planning schedule that also needs to be matched.

We're watering 2,500 trees a year to ensure the new trees are established for the long term.

The budget needed for planting trees for no net loss is estimated at $2 million a year.

Our group hopes to raise a million dollars to be a partner with the city in that effort.

Currently, the recommended by the mayor is far less than that.

We're asking the council to look at this closely and understand exactly what is being spent on tree canopy and the recovery, considering every expanded budget to ensure trees are not just planted, but sustained.

This program is not part of the Great Seattle Partnership, which is budgeted at a million dollars.

I also want to talk about community centers.

My first job was the manager of Evans Pool.

That was over 40 years ago, after a 40 year career in Parks and Recreation.

It needs to be rebuilt.

There's no other way to do it.

And lastly, I want to talk about acquisition.

We've had two levies over the last 20 years in this city which promise our communities parks to go along with increased density.

We've done a good job at that, but we're still falling far short.

But we need to look at acquisition opportunities.

There's a couple of major ones out there that without any increase in acquisition are not going to be accomplished.

You know as well as anybody that every inch is being developed in this city and we need more park space.

Thank you.

Dawit?

Dawit.

Dawit, thank you.

Thank you for correcting me.

After you on deck, we have Alice Lockhart and Rebecca Bair.

Go ahead, please.

All right.

Good evening.

My name is Dawit.

I'm with Root Street, R Street.

And I live in Shoreline.

I've also been in Washington state for over 20 years.

And as long as I've been here, this is the first time I've seen, excuse me, sort of much-needed campaign taking place in our community, and I am here in full support of 350 Seattle and their campaign of healthy through heat and smoke.

I believe that we all have a right to breathe fresh, cool, and clean air in our community centers.

Thank you.

Alex.

Hi, good evening.

Parks Board and everyone here.

I also was here to speak for Healthy Through Heat and Smoke, but I think everyone else has spoken so eloquently tonight, but I should instead be expressing my concern for what happens with those 25 parks rangers tomorrow.

My little park on the other side of the bike ped bridge here is scheduled to be swept again.

after multiple such sweeps.

And that sweep will be led by park personnel.

And we know that those 25 raiders will be doing more of that.

And every time this happens, the misery ramps up.

The same people come back to the park, but they're less well organized.

They're less well able to take care of themselves.

The garbage mounts faster, and the next sweep comes sooner.

And it just needs to stop.

And I urge the board not to fund more of this.

Thank you so much.

After Rebecca Bear, Becky Stewart and Cynthia Irvin.

Thank you very much.

I'm the president and CEO of the Seattle Parks Foundation, and I just want to say thank you to the community for showing up and believing so much in your parks and public spaces.

They're critical to the infrastructure for our city, and every single one of you speaking out is critical for the future of our city.

First, I want to commend the mayor's budget.

It's a great start, but it's not enough.

I do want to remind the Park Board that we did a statistically valid survey of the entire city and found that 81% of the public is looking for increased safety in our parks.

That is the number one concern of our citizens.

The Park Ranger program is actually a program designed, just to clarify, to actually help serve those who need have needs to provide food, water, connection to services, and they do not carry guns, and they do not do sweeps.

That is very clear.

I just want to make sure folks know about that.

We are also very supportive of all the climate initiatives.

in support of the 350 work, as well as tree canopy increases, which is a big concern in terms of the funding, and there's a need for additional funding there.

As well as, oh my God, how did I get there?

The one most important thing I want to call out is that the budget is too low.

We need to add another $20 million which would be about $135 million.

That would allow for bonding, which would allow $200 million to actually address the backlog.

Rebecca, I'm sorry.

Your time has expired.

That's fine.

To actually address the $360 million that hasn't been built.

So thank you.

I'll send the rest of my letter.

Becky is next.

Becky, Becky.

OK, not seeing Becky.

Cynthia Irvin is next.

And then after Cynthia, is it Nysel Mohamed Hines?

And then Rich Voget, you are on deck.

Please, go ahead.

Sorry, it's on my earring.

I'm going to leave it there.

My name is Cindy Urban.

There it goes.

And I'm also here to support Healthy Through Heat and Smoke.

I'm a member of People for Climate Action and also Green Buildings Now.

The Green Buildings Now team has been raising funds for two years to support the development of a resilience hub on Beacon Hill.

We've been working really hard, but our city needs to help and we need much more.

So we at Green Buildings Now are asking you to please fund fossil fuel-free resilience hubs at all the community centers, providing a place for people who currently have no escape, a way to escape smoke and heat is the least we can do.

Let's seriously cut our carbon emissions, but in the meantime, let's at least help people get through hotter, smokier summers.

Thank you.

And then Nysel is signed up next.

And I may be mispronouncing that, so.

Nysel.

Oh, great.

Thank you.

Please.

My name is Nysel Muhammad-Hinds, and I'm a physics PhD student at University of Washington, a union member, a mutual aid organizer, and a resident of District 5. People need safe places to go during heat and smoke.

And these environmental conditions are exacerbated by our investments in fossil fuels.

We urgently need to divest from fossil fuels and invest in community, especially the most marginalized, through climate resilience hubs, green union jobs, and social housing.

Not more park cops harassing housing folks.

When we said defund SPV, we did not mean fund park cops instead.

I support the full demands of the Healthy Through Beat and Smoke campaign, as does my union, UAW 4121, which has thousands of members.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Rich Bogut.

Rich?

OK, not seeing Rich.

So Audrey Khan and Annamarie Dooley will be the next two folks.

Sorry.

I'm Audrey.

Oh, go ahead, please.

So hi, my name is Audrey.

I'm a resident of Seattle in the Pinehurst neighborhood.

Everyone, I said everything that you, I'm not going to say again about the climate crisis, but it is very weird that we are putting $3 million towards park rangers of all things.

The $3 million allocated for more park rangers does not seem like a valuable use of the funding, nor should it be our first priority.

It does not seem to further the interests of the community or help the needs that come up due to the climate crisis, and this amount of money should be redistributed to further the climate and nature-oriented initiatives that benefit the greater community.

I fully support the demands of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

Anna Marie Dooley followed by Chris Kammerer.

My name is Samarie Dooley.

I'm a doctor and a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.

I will be brief.

I'm here to talk about heat because heat causes kidney failure, which is my specialty.

I just spent the holiday weekend covering two hospitals, and I thanked our good fortune that we didn't have the horrific heat that California had where I went to medical school.

Because when the heat event happened last year, our ERs were overwhelmed.

people died.

And believe me, our hospitals are in worse shape right now than they were last year.

Harborview, where I trained, went undiverted last week.

So we cannot have our ERs overwhelmed.

So I'm going to ask you to help have our hospitals work normally by funding heat pumps, solar panels, fixing ventilation in our community centers, and especially in low-income neighborhoods, because I've found that people tend to be less healthy And we talk about vulnerable populations, but everyone in this room is vulnerable when the temperature goes up.

And there isn't an age group in this room that I haven't seen in the hospital in kidney failure and brain inflammation.

So please fund our community centers.

Make them cooling centers.

Please let us get this done before next summer.

Thank you.

And then after Chris, Sebastian Diaz and Tommy ATZ is the last name.

Please.

Hi, council members.

Hi, Seattleites.

I'm Chris Kammer with Ballard FC, which is Seattle's semi-pro men's soccer team that has been delighting fans for its storied history of about seven months.

We're brand new.

Was anybody in this room?

What's that?

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry for interrupting.

Oh, no problem.

Go ahead.

Anybody besides my steering committee partner, Sebastian, been to a Ballard FC game in this room?

All right, it worked, cool.

I wasn't sure it was gonna happen.

We're here on behalf of the Friends of Interbay Steering Committee.

We're working on a really exciting public-private partnership at Interbay Athletic Complex that would see some seed money from MPD going into improving the whole facility, adding hundreds of hours of field booking time by turfing the grass field that's there, and then upgrading the facility so that Ballad of Sea Games, which if you were there, you'd see it was bursting at the seams.

We sold out every single one of our regular season games, could be expanded to allow more people to experience community level sports.

And we've publicly committed to bringing a women's semi-pro team in the next two years and using our platform to invest heavily in equitable and accessible soccer projects throughout the whole city, not just in our district.

So I think there's a really special opportunity to do something huge at Interbay.

And I'm going to be here.

I've got the plans.

And if anybody wants to come talk to me, I would love to meet you.

Thank you.

All right, so Sebastian, followed by Tommy.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Sebastian Diaz.

I'm the founder and executive director of Coaches United, a nonprofit located in South Seattle.

The programming that we offer is simple.

We want to make sure that kids, especially from underserved communities, such as immigrants and refugees, are having access to free software.

We see the sport as one of the greatest social tools.

and a tool to keep kids safe and healthy and active.

I'm standing here today and representing Friends of Inner Bay because we see this as an opportunity for two neighborhoods, two different regions of Seattle to collaborate towards having a space that's safe, that is accessible to organizations like Ballet FC and Coaches United.

We want to continue to empower the kids.

We want to continue to empower families and most importantly, young adults that are being at high risk, to offer them a safe pathway and athletic pathway so that they can follow their dreams and represent Seattle, Seattle at the highest.

Also, it represents an opportunity to prepare for the World Cup which is coming to town.

Thank you.

So, Tommy, followed by Olivia Bray and Linnea May.

Please.

Hi, I'm Tommy Atts.

I live in Greenwood, and I had a speech prepared, and I'm scrapping it because I'm sitting here.

I'm with the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

And I'm sitting here looking around to see how many people have masks on, to see if it's safe enough for me to take mine off, because I want to make sure you hear my plea that I am scared.

I'm sitting here and I'm shaking, and I thought it's because I'm afraid to do public speaking, even though I spent four years doing public speaking.

I'm scared because I'm scared every day.

And right now, to come here and face you, I'm having to face the feelings I have every day since I moved to Seattle nine months ago to escape joblessness in Philadelphia where I lived my entire life and left everyone I've ever known and loved because I got a job here in Seattle.

I came here to escape COVID, and now I'm facing a climate emergency that I did not experience in Philadelphia, where we have ACs readily available.

And every day I wonder what's going to happen when the heat comes and I live in the third story of my apartment building with no AC.

I do believe that there are solutions to this crisis and that is why I'm here through Healthy Heat and Smoke Campaign.

Thank you.

Olivia Bay and then Linnea May and Sam, is it Savoka?

Sorry, go ahead.

No problem.

Hi, I'm Olivia Bry, and I'm a D6 resident.

I initially came here to advocate for the Ballard Waterfront Park, which I still think is a great idea.

But I first want to start off by saying I really hope that you do these meetings in the South.

I feel very fortunate that this meeting was held very close to my house, but I hope that the community members to our South can have equal access to this opportunity.

I also must have been living under a rock because I didn't know about the Healthy Through Heat campaign, and I'm really grateful for the community organizers who provided amazing advocacy today.

I would ask that you please reject the mayor's plan for park rangers.

That money would be better spent on addressing what's behind this campaign, which is funding mental health crisis and will actually provide support to our neighbors.

I hope we can collaborate as these organizers have modeled for us today to build more access to safe and outdoor space built sustainably for all community members.

Thank you.

Sorry, let me get situated.

Yeah, take your time.

All right, there we go.

Hello, my name is Linnea, and I'm here to support the full demands of the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

I grew up in Texas, where whole summers of 90, 100 degree weather is a given, but also access to AC.

It wasn't until I moved here and experienced the heat dome of last year and the week-long heat wave of this year, that I began to fully understand that access to AC isn't just a matter of sanity, but a matter of survival.

Out of the 26 community centers, only two of them have AC.

And we can use the city parks budget to grow this number to all 26 of them, and turn them into climate resiliency hubs, powered by green renewable energy as it is the way.

The heat is only going to get worse, and we need community solutions to address it.

Thank you for your time.

And on deck, we have Ben Osterlund and Linnea Scott.

Sam?

Yes.

Go ahead, please.

Good evening, members of the committee.

My name is Sam Suyoka.

I'm a community member, a future public defender, and Concerned District 5 constituent.

I only mention that I'm a future public defender to let you know that I understand the laws that you are beholden to as public officials.

So far, at least 157 unhoused people have passed away this year, at the hands of Bruce Harrow, Tiffany Washington, Donna Waters, and many others, including several of you on this committee.

Adding 26 park rangers is nothing short of being co-conspirators and accomplices to even more dead and housed people.

When I thought about what to say this evening, I had to think about what would appeal to each of you as individuals.

Most of you probably have children, nieces, and nephews.

And I hope that one day they look into your record as officials and discover whether or not you helped perpetuate and facilitate the death of unhoused people, disabled people, black people, Hispanic people, and indigenous people, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers.

I hope that if you cannot be accountable to us, the people, your constituents, you can be accountable to your family members and the image that they see you.

I'd like to spend the remainder of my time, I was going to spend the remainder of my time listing the names of 25 people that have died since July up until August 30th, but my time is up.

Thank you.

Yep.

OK, great.

City Council, attentive members of the Seattle community, my name is Ben Osterling.

I'm a Crown Hill District 6 member and a proud part of the Helping Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

In fact, I'm all too familiar with that stack of cards on the table.

I'm here today because we cannot be complacent.

We cannot rest in this moment when our planet is warming.

Even though this summer didn't see the heat dome or the awful wildfire smoke of summer's past, these occurrences will be all too common in the years ahead.

When there's a heat emergency in this city, everyone should have a place to go.

When wildfire smoke makes it hard to breathe, everyone should have a place to go.

For this reason, for the sake of equity, compassion, and pragmatic planning, we need the council to advocate for the campaign's demands.

That is updating all of the community centers throughout Seattle.

That's not six of them, that's not eight of them, That's all of the community centers throughout Seattle to make sure that they have heating and cooling and that they are powered by 100% renewable energy.

We want to see this transition done through community hiring and through union labor.

And we want to make sure that the communities that will be most impacted by rising temperatures are prioritized first.

I will be eagerly, hopefully, watching to see what this council does.

Okay, and then on deck we have Jackson, it looks like Staua, I can't read the handwriting, I'm sorry, followed by Anjali Shendi.

Hi, my name is Linnea and I live in District 5. I'm here to support the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

Our society has already waited too long to avoid many negative effects of climate change.

We have started seeing these effects play out all over the world and in our own backyard every day.

On a very basic level, it devastates me to know that my three-month-old daughter will likely grow up never knowing the carefree, clear blue August skies of my Seattle youth.

Her summers will be filled with smoky, ashy skies.

What gives me hope, though, is knowing that she still has the opportunity to grow up in a resilient, equitable, loving community.

We just have to build it.

And we have that opportunity now.

And that is why I support the full demands of 350 Seattle.

Let's start building.

It's past time.

And is Jackson present?

Okay, not seeing Jackson, Anjali?

Excellent.

Yes, yes, I may be mispronouncing the name, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

And then on deck we'll have Ian Price and Heather Price.

So go ahead, please.

So, yeah, so I'm here as a proud resident of our beautiful state of Washington, but right now I'm really here as a citizen who's super concerned about climate change, same old.

So I went hiking with my husband this weekend, and I told him something that I think resonates with everyone in here, which is that You know, how lucky are we?

We live in one of the most beautiful states in the lower 48 and most likely in the world.

Our thick, rich, lush, temperate forests along with the biodiversity that accompanies it.

There's nothing like it anywhere else.

And I think everyone here would be interested in what he had to say about that.

So he said to me, you like it?

Good.

Enjoy it.

Live in the moment right now.

In 20 years' time, this will be all gone.

Look at what's happening in California.

Look at Oregon.

We are next.

It's no longer a question of if, but when.

So, coming back to this meeting, I just want to know from everyone, what are people thinking?

What are we going to do?

Where are we going to go?

There is no planet B for the human race.

We're done.

This is it.

Climate change is no longer approaching.

It's here.

So as a citizen of this beautiful city, which is arguably one of the greenest cities in the United States, I ask everyone, especially the city council, to effective immediately move all city infrastructure away from fossil fuels and towards green energy starting today.

The current IRA bill and the new Fed handout should make it much, much easier to do going forward.

Thank you for listening.

Ian Price, followed by Heather Price, and then followed by Bill Farmer.

Please.

Yeah.

Hello.

I'm Ian Price.

I'm 14, and I live in Seattle.

I'm here to ask you to install electric heat pumps and filters in our community centers.

I have asthma.

And in the summers, it affects me a lot.

When there's smoke, I have to be inside for days.

And I'm lucky enough to have a heat pump and air filters in my home.

But there's people, like, the amount that I saw raise their hands without AC is insane.

And with the amount of people with asthma, it keeps on rising because of, like, global warming.

And them not having a place to go is, like, unacceptable.

So I want to see community centers have AC and, like, heat pumps, and I want to see them be safe places for those people to go to.

Heather Price, and then Bill Farmer, and then Meryl, I think, is it Adler?

Please, go ahead.

Hi, I'm Dr. Heather Price.

I'm a climate scientist.

I did my PhD and was a postdoc at University of Washington with a program on climate change.

So my focus is on climate and on air pollution, which we're seeing an intersection of almost every summer now.

Right now, California is who's suffering.

But in the United States in 2021, one in three people living in the U.S. was suffering from a climate catastrophe.

And everyone in this room, if you lived here in Seattle, You lived through the heat dome event, which would not have been possible without fossil-fueled climate change disrupting our climate.

My dress is climate data.

From about the 1800s, late 1800s at my shoulder and down to 2020 at my knee.

The red part of my dress are the children in this room and my students.

I teach at North Seattle College now.

I work with faculty, helping them incorporate climate justice and civic engagement into their class because the science is done.

I'm done studying the science.

It's time to decarbonize and live up to decarbonizing Seattle, which means also our community centers.

This is a beautiful way of doing both mitigation and adaptation.

by funding heat pumps, solar on the rooftops, and decarbonizing every step of the way.

So please do it.

It's going to be a, the world's going to smell a lot better when we do too.

Thank you.

Bill?

So then after Bill is Meryl and then Joanna Schottler.

Go ahead.

I'm Bill Farmer with Friends of Athletic Fields.

I want to take a sec.

Kudos to 350.org and all you supporters for raising awareness about renewable energy and combating climate change.

I'm here to promote healthy people in a little different way through active recreation.

And our group promotes more and better play fields.

I've been doing My advocacy worked for over 20 years now.

I think Seattle's added something like 200,000 people in the last 20, 25 years.

The population has a huge youthful segment that's very active, and people keep having kids.

All that puts more demand on play fields, and we have a finite inventory of play fields.

We're not going to create more flat ground and be able to develop new spaces very easily.

So what we need to do is invest in the play fields we have now.

And that can be done by installing synthetic turf, which is more durable, can be played on year round.

Installing energy efficient LED lighting to allow play field later into the evening.

upgrade, install drainage systems and repair some of the decrepit irrigation systems in the grass field.

So the first cycle funding plan didn't have much of any development funding.

for capital projects, and I think the cycle two spending plan is very similar.

There's not much in there for active recreation and play fields.

So I just ask you to look at that, increase funding, and the one play field in the first plan, Smith Cove, has yet to be built, and as you know well.

Billion times expired, I'm sorry.

Please see if that one can get done this time.

Keenly aware of that one, thank you.

I'm a volunteer for 350 Aviation Community Solutions, but not speaking on that group's behalf.

UW has been studying the effect of jet particulate emissions on the quality of the air in the city.

Jet turbines on pathways in and out of Seattle have a massive contribution that is much wider than that of ground transport, which emissions mostly fall.

Those emissions mostly fall within two to three yards of roadways.

But there's that much greater spread of particulate matter is spread overhead, all of us, which is different, much smaller in size than the deposits of ground transport.

Findings show from these UOW studies that There's ultra-ultra-fine particulates that permeate body organs much easier in the school rooms and schoolyards and park playgrounds downwind of SeaTac.

The state has seen to install air filters to rooms, removing 85% of the pollutants.

And these dollars, to help, need to also be accessed by the city for not only community centers, but also the schools in the city.

And we will see the effect of jet turbines on our lungs to be addressed in some small way.

Not only do we need to protect our kids from the ultrafine emissions, which considerably are invasive to have an invasive impact on our kids, but the effect on the planet from SeaTac needs to be seriously seen, too.

42% of greenhouse gases originate from SeaTac that isn't easily reversed because we're going to be seeing a 50% increase in that air traffic.

Joanna Schottler will be followed by Bruce Draeger.

Hi, I'm Joanna Schottler, and I live in West Seattle, North End of Lincoln Park.

And I'm also a member of 350, so I agree with everything that Dave said yes to.

I'm also a property manager, so I also look at what's happening with buildings and things, and so I also totally agree with the heat pumps.

I have all my owners look at that when they're looking at new HVAC information, because also they have air conditioning.

And it's also electric, so that's excellent.

And the other thing is I think that the building should also have more in and out lighting.

So if someone's coming in, so that goes off and someone goes out.

So starting to think of all the different things that you can do as well as with the gutters and seeing if you can use some of the water that's coming off the roofs that go into the plantings of the buildings, you know, that's around the buildings.

So I think that's very important as well.

And as for the smoke, yes, I was involved in that.

And I had birds.

I am fostering birds.

And they always get concerned when the smoke comes along, and I have to make everything well for them as well.

So that's also with children and elderly and things like that, as well as having the availability for the buildings when we have those kind of things.

As for the park people that need more parks, I also am a leisure service major, so I also...

parks and rec is also one of my background in community organizing.

So I always think of that too, and sometimes people are talking about having them be...

I don't like that they're having to go and do the homeless thing.

I think we need to think of another solution.

You know, something like with the Plymouth Housing Group that's out there.

We need more groups like that, which I also love the founders of that.

So there's lots to do.

Thank you so much, and have a great day.

Next up, we have Bruce Drager, followed by David Morin.

And I don't see, I think Bruce may have left.

So David Morin.

Thank you council members for being here tonight and listening to all those great comments that we're hearing.

I'm just so impressed to hear all the people speaking up for healthy communities, healthy lifestyles.

It's something that, you know, we've been talking about in the architectural industry for 50 years, how to have energy efficient buildings.

then how to have net zero buildings for 25 years.

But nobody in my generation did anything about it, so it's great to see the activism that we see today, and hopefully that will make something change for the good.

Speaking of activism, there's one person who's no longer with us, a woman activist, Ursula Jenkins, she passed away in 1999, however, There's one part of the 400 plus parks in the city of Seattle that is named after this woman activist.

And we would like to see that this, I think October 12th was Ursula Jenkins Day declared right after she passed away.

We'd like to see that park honored in the future, especially with the new development coming on right next to that park.

And anything you can do to promote Ursula Judkins and Women Activism would be appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Jonathan Chen followed by, I can't really read the first name.

The last name is Haney.

Is it Moroco Haney?

Sorry.

Anyway, in any event, sorry.

Go ahead, Jonathan.

Council members, community members, I've been in virtual meetings for over two years, long enough to know that it's good to stand up a little.

So I will relinquish 10 seconds of my time for everyone to just stand up, stretch a little, get some attention.

Yeah.

You have been in the line earlier.

Yeah, I know.

Where were you 25 minutes ago, Jonathan?

It's not my fault.

I wish.

Thank you, everybody.

My name is Jonathan Chan.

I'm a resident, a renter in District 5. I have asthma.

As a child, I grew up spending a lot of time in the hospital because I couldn't breathe.

In March 2020, when the beginning of the pandemic happened, I was terrified and I locked myself in my house.

I didn't leave for months.

The house I was living in at the time did not have the HVAC system.

I had to keep all the windows and the doors closed when the smoke came in.

But that still didn't protect me because there were cracks.

So I had a dilemma.

Do I stay inside to suffocate from all the smoke that was coming in?

Or do I go outside and risk getting COVID?

Fortunately, I had a partner.

She is my partner now.

But she rescued me.

She invited me to stay at her place that did have an HVAC system.

I was very, very fortunate.

There's so many communities out there, especially communities of color, that do not have that luxury to escape.

I was a climate refugee in Seattle in 2020. That blows my mind.

This plan, supporting healthy through heat and smoke, can prevent that from happening.

Thank you very much.

And then our last speaker, I think it's How would you pronounce this, Dan?

Morocco.

Morocco?

Yeah, that's what I said earlier.

Maybe they've left.

Sorry, that's kind of an anticlimactic way to end it, I guess.

Thank you very much, everybody.

That's our last speaker who has signed in.

So I want to thank everybody for turning out.

This is our last public hearing.

coming on the heels of a public hearing at City Hall and a public hearing at the Rainier Beach Community Center a few weeks ago and really appreciate the robust turnout and the comments.

It'll definitely help the board as we deliberate on what our recommendations are going to be and then what our final package of investments will be over the course of the month of September.

So thank you so much for being generous with your time and coming out and sharing your priorities with us.

and look forward to staying in touch as we move on to the next steps.

Just as a quick plug, I will say that our meetings as a Metropolitan Park District and as a Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, which oversees similar issues, are also all public.

We meet in Seattle City Hall.

We take in-person testimony.

as well as dial-in testimony if people want to call.

Always happy to take additional testimony there.

Also happy to consider supplemental testimony, email feedback, offline, and happy to stay in touch if there's any concerns that you feel like you couldn't get out in just a minute and 30 seconds.

So no need to end the conversation here, but For tonight, I'm going to go ahead and say where that is.

Sorry.

Where are we once again?

We're in District 5. D5?

In the Northgate Community Center.

Live in D5?

Yeah.

That's right.

Thank you, Mr. Strauss.

Absolutely, Council President.

Yes, yes.

So I'm going to go ahead and say to 759 p.m.

and this meeting in the Metropolitan Park District is adjourned.